Of course you are not. I'm married to someone who suffers from depression but now recognises and deals with it, my brother suffers from it and controls it with a combination of medication and cognitive behavioural therapy, I've experienced it both post- and pre-natally, my nephew went through a period of schizophrenia but is married, working and with a family now, and both my father and other brother had mental breakdowns due to business pressures and stress. There's a lot of crazy in my family but we're all surviving.

 

now recognises and deals with it, I believe thats the key, the starting point. You certainly can say truly you have experienced it and understand.

 

No you're not alone. My brother suffered terribly with depression but refused to seek help. He chose alcohol instead which eventually killed him.

One of my best friends at work also suffers but controls it with medication.

 

So sorry to hear bout your brother - hope me staring this thread did not cause you any unhappiness? I just feel that more awareness, extra policies and funding could raise awareness and hopefully prevent situations like what your brother experienced. In Belfast here we have had a run for months of younger people, male and female, taking their own lives. It's so so sad. Some initiatives have been introduced by the Executive to try and tackle the problem - it's a start.

 

am I alone?

Probably not. There are about 265 users on the forum at the moment.

The Samaritans indicate that about 4% of men and 8% of women suffer from depression, and around 1:20 have it really bad, and in one's lifetime, the rates are probably around 1:4 people will become depressed.

Fear not - you're in depressed company!

Music certainly can help if you love the way it holds your emotions, and carries you to another world, if you're not too depressed to hit the play button, or too numbed into oblivion to care to pay the electricity bills; eat, sleep.

Otherwise ... loving something (spending time; devoted; mindful of, and caring of) can hold the wave of depression at bay. Maybe giving love in this way to someone, and receiving is more worthwhile. After all - wouldn't life be depressing, without love?

 

I take comfort in the fact that a number of great composers experienced some sort of mental ill-health (Wagner, to name but a few)! Love conquers all, eh?!

 

Everyone goes trough some depression now and then. Important to just know you will get past it, and that it will get better again

 

I appreciate your positivity but I wish you wouldn't take it so lightly. What you're talking about is sadness, which is a commonplace and healthy emotion and definitely not a disorder. Depression is a prolonged crippling malaise which in my experience often brings with it self-loathing, inability to take care of oneself, inability to enjoy simple pleasures, extreme decrease or increase in appetite, lack of sleep or too much sleep, shifting sleep patterns, anxiety, fear, paranoia and a host of other problems. While this is not the case for everyone with depression, and we can all be thankful for that, in my case it is a prolonged relapsing and remitting condition that I am saddled with for the foreseeable future.

 

Seán, isn't it odd? It takes courage to reveal that one suffers (if I may use that word) from depression, or some other mental illness. Yet people are only too willing to say they have a variety of physical illnesses.

You say "I had a mental breakdown two years ago, and am classified as a depressive". In that case, isn't the depression an entirely natural response to the crisis you went through? To call it "mental illness", as you do in the title to the thread, is a little harsh on yourself, surely.

 

Hi, personally I don't see it as courageous....it is an illness, say like, Diabetes or Parkinson's. The difference is the 'stigma and labels ' surrounding it, which I think comes from fear and lack of acknowledgement of the number in the population who actually bare it. Historically the term mental illness was deemed more socially acceptable - mental: of the Psychological variety and illness: counter to wellness. Now days though the term appears to be swaying towards 'mental ill-health'. No matter what term you use to describe it, how you explain it, it still concludes the same way.

 

Hi Sean,
It's good to hear you can admit to it.
That's the biggest challenge.
I had a "breakdown" around 5 years ago - using alcohol to cope (it doesn't work)
Luckily I have some good support and counselling, I had help using NLP (it;s very much like CBT)
I have learned to recognise when I'm on a downward slide, and try to do something about it
Classical music and chatting on here certainly helps.
One of the biggest issues is the "stigma" this is a societial problem.
People don't know how to act, what to say - what not to say??
Education is what is required, to help everybody concerned

 

Education is what is required, to help everybody concerned

We have an ongoing TV campaign about depression here using a well-known sports figure (of course, it's rugby crazy NZ here) who has suffered and suffers from depression. He talks about his own coping mechanisms and what other people around have done to help.

 

I used to be depressed; seriously, I think that listening to classical music cured it.

 

Even though it may sound strange to some, I think this happened to me as well.

I used to be very depressed as a consequence to heavy bullying at secondary school. And quite frankly, listening to black metal at the time didn't help my atmosphere either. However, when I started listening to classical/opera, it very much changed; I'm now very much looking forward to delving deeper into the world of music and it certainly gives me joy every single day.

Music truly can be a cure.

 

Classical music really cured me of many and big psychological problems. I was in a severe depression for years, social phobia, panic attacks, I also stuttered...well, my life was really horrible. I had no joy in my life except for some walks from time to time. Because of these things I missed my opportunity to study abroad at a serious university. But, son I discovered classical music. At first wasn't a big help because I mostly listened to modernists, dissonant music, and I hadn't really gotten ride of depressive rock/metal music during those times. Then I started to enjoy classical more and more, I was already enjoying baroque music after few months, just discovered the renaissance polyphonic music and I was in heaven. My depression was slowly fading away, as I felt so peaceful on Palestrina's vocal works. But I truly found peace within myself when I understood Beethoven's music, all of his drama, struggles, and how he really managed to be happy (or at least satisfied with himself) even in his precarious conditions. He wrote some of the moving music ever made when he was totally deaf, no secret in that. He never abandoned his ideals, his beliefs in humanity not even then. Beethoven's music really showed me that one can overcame his destiny, simply because there is no destiny, only your mind which finds in every thing an obstacle. There are no obstacles to happiness only the conditions that we put on ourselves. Only when I finally made peace with myself I was fine. In present I am still a very introverted guy, but I feel fine about this, I am really happy with what I am. Psychiatrists, drugs, therapy haven't done much for me.

 

Hi - thanks for being so honest. Brave of you to share these facts with us, I admire your openness and salute you.